Lions Kickoff Tournament Day 3

Ewing — The final day of the Lions Kickoff Tournament has come and gone, and with the men’s tennis teams from The College of New Jersey, New York University, Dickinson College, and Stevens Institute of Technology had their opportunity to show what they’re made of going into the fall season.

Ultimately, TCNJ once again came out on top, with the Lions winning 10 of their 12 match-ups in the tournament. Stevens won eight of their match-ups, NYU closely followed going six-for-six, while Dickinson ultimately did not win any of their match-ups.

A player from Stevens Institute of Technology returns a serve (Photo by Grant Playter)

Horace Choy, NYU tennis head coach, discussed his observations about his team’s performance at length.

“For us, I think serve and returns are going to be very important moving forward,” Choy said. “It’s something that got better as the day went on, but still something we’re going to stress in regards to moving forward with our spring season.”

Focusing on weaknesses is not the only goal of the team’s in the tournament, however. Tournaments like the Lions Kickoff are an excellent opportunity for teams to learn about fresh talent, identify strengths they need to concentrate on and iron out weaknesses they see in their players.

“As far as strengths, I thought there was some good chemistry in some of our doubles teams,” Choy said. “I felt like Jay (Min) and Josh (Piatos) played very well together, I think Rahul (Das) and Umberto (Setter) have the potential to be a very good team, they just need to work together a little bit more and be a little bit steadier in their level, I think it was a little bit up and down every now and again.”

If one looks at the data across this three-day period, some interesting statistics. For instance, if one looks at TCNJ’s record over this period, of the 34 matches they played, they won 27, or roughly 80%. Conversely, of the 25 games they played, Dickinson won one (Butler/Warner vs. Binder/Jeffrey, 8-5) or just 4% of their games.

But both teams benefit from tournaments like these. TCNJ gets the opportunity to cement their status as one of the strongest Division III tennis teams, while the other schools get an opportunity to grow their skills against tougher opponents. In that line of thought, every team who participated in the tournament got something out of it. What a smash success!